Pulse - September 2024 - 8

SCVMA PROFILE
New Book Tells Lori Weise
and 'Downtown Dog' Story
" R
ethinking Rescue: Dog Lady and the
Story of America's Forgotten People
and Pets " - a new book that addresses difficult
questions about how the nation has
dealt with once unbridled euthanasia of
pets by shelters as well as poverty and pet
ownership - is now available.
Carol Mithers, a Los Angeles journalist, is author of the
work, which discusses how animals and their owners have
been treated over the years and the path-breaking work of
Lori Weise, founder of the nonprofit Downtown Dog Rescue,
in how to deal with these problems.
Carol was referred to Lori by a friend after she read a story
about an animal hoarder, who " used the rescue premise and
promise to accumulate a large number of animals that then
were not cared for properly. Lori had recently dealt with a
hoarder. But our talk went beyond that.
" It was a really fascinating story. I had never really considered
the rescue movement, especially how much human effort
it entailed, " Carol said. " I had never thought either about the
issue of poor people and unhoused people who had pets. And
the more I talked to Lori, the more I became aware that she
had her own fascinating story. "
" In the 1990s there were a great number of animals being
killed in America's shelters, " Carol said. " For many dogs and
cats, it was just routine that they would be euthanized. This
had been true for years. The numbers had fallen from the '70s
because more people were spaying and neutering their animals.
But millions were still being put down.
" This movement - colloquially known as 'no kill' - saw it
as an unforgiveable outrage. The goal was to end all shelter
killing. A part of the movement was a campaign to get people
to realize that you could adopt a shelter animal - they were
not defective, they were not second rate. And the more adoptions,
the fewer animals would be killed. "
Almost simultaneously, she said, a movement began to take
animals out of the shelters and make sure they were healthy,
train them and spay or neuter them so they could be shown
on adoption days. " Those who did this were like middle men
- but they were mostly middle women, " Carol said.
" You could see rescue groups' flyers in the old days and
their websites in the newer days so you would not have to
walk down shelter rows of cages and see frantic barking dogs
and mewing cats and not know which one to take. "
Lori, Carol said, had begun her own work downtown about
the same time this larger movement was starting. " Her work was
part of it but it was different. From its earliest days, the no-kill
8
and rescue movement promoted
a narrative about pets
in shelters, unwanted and
suffering. It was all about
misery and that people
should get pets out of that
misery and take them home.
" None of this narraCarol
Mithers
tive considered that some
of these animals had lived
in homes where they were
loved and that the reasons
their owners had not held
on to them had to do with
stress in their lives and
poverty. " There are some 20
million dogs in the United States living in poverty with their
owners, Carol said.
" Lori, she added, was doing rescues and also saying: " Let's
think about how we can help people hold on to their animals
rather than taking their pets to the shelter - and then we'd
have to find them new homes. "
About 30 percent of animals in shelters are pets brought in
by their owners, Carol said. " Owners failed to find an apartment
where their pets would be accepted. Or they faced an
unaffordable veterinary bill. Or they believed their sick pet
would find care from a shelter veterinarian.
" You may not be able to change an uncaring pet owner
but you certainly can help the good owners who face such
obstacles, " she said. " Downtown Dog's great innovation in
2013 was called intervention.
" They stationed somebody at the South Los Angeles shelter
who would ask people who intended to give up their dogs
why they wanted to do that. 'Is there anything I can do to
help you not to do that? What is it you need?'
" And it often turned out that the answer had something to
do with money that was totally doable. It was something that
didn't cost much in the larger sense that was unaffordable for
those pet owners. " And Downtown Dog Rescue's support
enabled many of these owners to keep their pets.
Her book, Carol said, " tells a lot of Lori's personal story -
things this very private person had never shared before. I also
was able to tell her story in the context of what was going on
in the " giant effort to stop euthanizing pets and get people to
adopt shelter animals.
" But the more I learned about that movement the more I
felt it often prioritized animals over people, and sometimes
demonized them, particularly those who gave up their pets
and who didn't care for them in the ways followers of the
SEPTEMBER 2024
PULSE
Pulse - September 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pulse - September 2024
